David Miliband has earned £125,000 for just over a fortnight's work at a
Premiership football club, it has emerged.

The former foreign secretary has earned £125,000 for 15 days’ work since becoming a director of Sunderland football club in February 2011.

The figure is, pro rata, the equivalent of nearly £42,000 a week, or more than £2.1million a year.

The sum is more than £40,000-a-week striker Louis Saha and higher than defender Titus Bramble’s £30,000- a-week deal, the Daily Mail reported.

In total, the South Shields Labour MP has registered nearly £1million of outside earnings since the 2010 Labour election.

After losing the Labour leadership to his younger brother Ed, Mr Miliband went on to make £985,315 from the public speaking circuit and his work as an adviser.

The figure, drawn from the register of MPs’ interests, includes hospitality, travel and gifts.

Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "MPs can have outside interests if they're declared, but it becomes an issue when it impacts on their constituency and parliamentary work.

"Taxpayers expect their MP to help solve local problems and represent their interests in Westminster, not jet off around the globe picking up huge pay cheques they can only dream of.

"The only way that constituents can have a proper check on the behaviour of their MP is to introduce the right to recall them at any time during their term. That would mean politicians were out fighting for taxpayers' interests rather than their own."